Osborne Construction

Osborne Construction Shaves Months Off Network Setup Lead Time

Update: Osborne Construction’s deployment has been recognized by Computer Weekly as being the most innovative and original, voted Best Networking Project at their European User Awards against 4 other finalists. Read more.

Previously we would need to install ADSL where possible but the lead times are unpredictable and could be anything from weeks to several months. These delays and uncertainties add significant frustration and cost to the project.”

Phil Gilbey. Head of IT, Osborne.

Reducing Delays from Months to Days

With an annual turnover in excess of £320 million, Osborne employs around 1000 staff and several thousand subcontractors working on up to 90 sites across the UK. Osborne clients span both private and public sector, including critical national infrastructure such as rail, road, health, and education projects. The company has been an early adopter of technologies such as building information modeling (BIM), thin clients, and virtualization to help streamline the construction process. With a growing requirement for IT within the construction process, Osborne originally covered the connectivity gap between site and datacenter by providing 3G dongles, 3G routers, or wired broadband. Phil Gilbey, Head of IT at Osborne explains, “Where possible, we would install ADSL connectivity, but the lead times on lines are unpredictable and could be anything from a few weeks to several months. These delays and uncertainties add significant frustration and, potentially, cost to projects.”

Challenging Locations Restrict Connectivity Options

Osborne also found a great deal of inconsistency in this approach, especially in challenging environments such as railway stations or areas with limited coverage. Over the years, Osborne has tested technologies such as satellite and running their own multi-SIM 3G routers, but these options had significant complexity and cost drawbacks. With new rules requiring the use of BIM on centrally funded projects by 2016, Osborne turned to Onwave, a managed service provider that offered a more reliable and predictable method of assuring site connectivity.

Overview

Osborne, a leading UK construction firm, needs rapidly deployable connectivity to remotely access critical resources to help streamline the construction process. Using Onwave, a service powered by Peplink technology, Osborne has reduced delays from months to days.

Onwave’s innovative managed service takes advantage of any available access method and bonds them with Peplink's SpeedFusion technology to improve the performance, reliability and flexibility of remote connectivity. The service uses flexible combinations of 3G, 4G LTE, FTTC, leased lines, xDSL and satellite to provide a guaranteed level of connectivity and bandwidth over a flexible contract period at any location in the UK. As an ISP, Onwave delivers a complete managed service comprising of maintenance and traffic delivery from each remote site through its own network directly into the client’s own datacenter.

Peplink-Powered Onwave Solution Delivers Rapid IT Mobilization

To date, Osborne has deployed Onwave solutions to around 15 sites across the UK. “The setup time is now measured in days instead of weeks or months, and we now have a fixed cost and guaranteed level of connectivity,” says Gilbey, “For longer projects, we can order an ADSL connection from Onwave. We can then remove the 3G / 4G LTE connections, which means our monthly costs are reduced and bandwidth goes up, but we don’t have any disruption in terms of reconfiguring routing tables, access points, firewalls, or VPNs. This allows us to seamlessly transition between connections over the course of the project and stop immediately when the project is finished.”

Meeting the Demand for Innovative Solutions

Onwave has secured wins with several other major UK construction companies and to date has over 100 sites using its service. “One of the key selling points of our solution is that it allows our customers to scale up and down, taking advantage of whatever connectivity option is most appropriate. This helps our customers avoid the complexity of provisioning, managing multiple vendors, delivery, and ongoing support; which is all handled by Onwave’s managed service,” says Ladbrook.

The key selling points of our solution is that it allows our customers to scale up and down and take advantage of whatever connectivity option is most appropriate. ”

Best Networking Project Of The Year

The Computer Weekly European Awards honors IT professionals and vendors across Europe that have excelled in their approach to using technology. Osborne Construction was up against some 130 entries and eventually won out from 50 finalists. Amongst its own category - Best Networking Project Of The Year - Osborne differentiated itself by displaying how the solution significantly reduced its deployment lead time from months to mere days and how reliable connectivity is achievable even in rural and remote areas, both factors being critical for construction sites. Osborne competed and won against the likes of Ruckus Wireless’s AMEX Stadium, Smiths Group and Circle IT’s Milton Keynes College project.

A well thought-out project that displays clear savings. The entry is well put together and shows Osborne to be innovative, original in its ideas and committed to getting it done right. ”